MATERIALS: Skates and leather boots on iron and graphite base, brass plate
DIMENSIONS: 68 × 44.5 × 57.2 cm
PROVENANCE: The artist
COLLECTION: Fabio Mauri Estate, Rome
CATALOGUE: O_1971_326
A pair of four-wheeled skates on white leather boots, fixed onto an iron and graphite base resting on the ground. As with the other works from the Ebrea (inv. 3476) set, the title engraved on a brass plaque turns the skates into an object of horror from a dystopian world ruled by the Nazis, in which racialised human bodies are reduced to mere raw material for the production of common objects. As we can see in period photographs, the work’s original base featured a Star of David below the skates. The artist removed this when he had the stand rebuilt in the 1990s, albeit retaining the brass plaque in the same position.
1971, Venice, Galleria Barozzi, Ebrea, opening 1 October, curated by Furio Colombo, Renato Barilli.
1971, Brescia, Galleria Acme Studio, Ebrea, opening 30 October (travelling: 1971, Venice).
1971, Parma, Galleria La Steccata, Ebrea, opening 18 November (travelling: 1971, Venice).
1971, Rome, Galleria La Salita, Ebrea, opening 9 December (travelling: 1971, Venice).
1972-1973, Bologna, Museo Civico, Tra rivolta e rivoluzione – Immagine e progetto, November 1972 – January 1973, curated by Franco Solmi, Concetto Pozzati.
1974, Milan, Galleria Cenobio Visualità, “D.P.V.”: Ebrea, 13 February.
2001, Warsaw, Ujazdowski Castle – Centre for Contemporary Art, Belvedere Italiano. Linee di tendenza dell’arte italiana dal 1945 al 2001, 18 June – 22 July, curated by Achille Bonito Oliva.
2018, New York, Hauser & Wirth, With Out, 25 January – 7 April, curated by Olivier Renaud-Clément.
Franco Gherardi, “Una poltrona fatta con la pelle della signorina Citterich, ebrea”, in Giorni Vie Nuove, Year 2, no. 2, Milan, 12 January 1972, p. 69 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri, Der Politische Ventilator (Milan: Achille Mauri – Krachmalnicoff, 1973), p. 47 (ill.).
Fabio Mauri. L’universo d’uso, exhibition catalogue, Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome, edited by Francesca Alfano Miglietti (Milan: Skira, 2008), p. 69 (ill.).
